
His critics call him a ‘sexual psychopath’ and attribute the increase in promiscuity, transmission of sexual diseases, rape, divorce, and more to his popularity. Kinsey’s supporters label him the ‘father of the Sexual Revolution’. Part of his research included his own personal relationships with members of each sex, and this often led to personal criticisms of immorality against him. He admitted that he was an experimenter in his own research efforts. Although he married in 1921 and had four children, he was very open about his equal attraction to men and his various same-sex relationships. Kinsey himself was an acknowledged bisexual individual. This caused further controversy and questions about bias in his studies. Examples included homosexuals, prostitutes, pedophiles, prisoners, and teenagers. To back up his findings, Alfred Kinsey included a good proportion of volunteers from all aspects of life and all degrees of sexual orientation. Nevertheless, Kinsey created and published his Kinsey Reports on a regular basis, thereby making him an international celebrity on these issues. The discussion of this topic was considered taboo at the time. This presentation caused significant controversy because it suggests there exists degrees of sexual orientation, and that such could be fluid and accommodate a mix of attractions. This was a measurement from 0 to 6 of an individual’s sexual preference for the same or opposite sex, ranging from exclusively heterosexual at 0 to exclusively homosexual at 6. Conclusions included revelations such as that 90% of males masturbated, 85% had experienced pre-marital intercourse, and 70% of males had paid a prostitute at least once.Ī notable innovation from his research which gained international attention was his creation of the Kinsey Scale. Topics covered included sexual orgasm, sexual practices, sexual orientation, and mating practices.

Their publication caused considerable attention and controversy because of the radical insights they provided on gender behaviour. The result of this research was published in two groundbreaking books: Sexual Behaviour in the Human Male (1948) and Sexual Behaviour in the Female (1953). He founded the Institute for Sex Research at the University to apply techniques of scientific research to this new field of study. He combined these interviews with his own personal observations and, unique at the time, his own sexual experimentation with volunteers. As part of a research project in this area, Kinsey began collecting over 18,000 interviews with individuals on the subject matter. It was not until 1938, when a course opening occurred in the subject of marriage, that Kinsey turned his attention to the study of the history of sexual behaviour. He then joined the Indiana State University as an Assistant Professor of Zoology. He went on to do post-graduate work at Harvard. Kinsey’s post-secondary school education was focussed on the sciences including biology, botany, and zoology despite his father’s request that he study the more practical field of engineering.

His research was innovative, though controversial, because it presented a radical new approach to thinking about the relationship between the sexes, including the incorporation of same-sex attraction. Alfred Kinsey was a Professor of entomology and zoology whose path breaking research into the sexual behaviour of males and females created a new area of study called Sexology.
